Teens Reveal the Future of Digital Media

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released another of its ongoing series of research projects into American use of the Internet and, in doing so, reminds us that the future us grownups keep predicting is already being lived by teens. The newest report is entitled Teen Content Creators and Consumers and examines the fact that:
"Fully half of all teens and 57% of teens who use the internet could be considered Content Creators. They have created a blog or webpage, posted original artwork, photography, stories or videos online or remixed online content into their own new creations."

Representatives of old media sometimes attempt to ridicule the general population's content creation by focusing on the fact that few will be great artists in order to downplay the fact that the Internet makes it possible for anyone to become a publisher and potentially reach a world wide audience if they can execute well or bring something unique to the table. But what critics of media democracy miss that's perhaps even more important is the fact that the Internet and digital media more generally have offered an environment in which young people can create content as a normal part of everyday communication.

The authors of the report Teen Content Creators and Consumers state:
"Teens are often much more enthusiastic authors and readers of blogs than their adult counterparts. Teen bloggers, led by older girls, are a major part of this tech-savvy cohort. Teen bloggers are more fervent internet users than non-bloggers and have more experience with almost every online activity in the survey."

When I was first using Blogger for various blogs, the recently updated weblogs list was more prominent in the interface and I would check it out regularly. In clicking on interesting looking blog titles, I encountered what various researchers have verified, that a large proportion of blogs are created by teen and, sometimes, preteen girls. No, they aren't creating political blogs or trade blogs or any of the other blogs we currently take so seriously. They're simply using the weblog as another form of communication among many forms and by communicating online they remind us that the professionalization of content creation which has resulted in amazing riches has also tended to disempower everyday people.

Tom Zeller Jr. of the NY Times looks at some teenage examples of what the Pew/Internet report reveals in aggregate and references recent situations in which students were threatened with suspension for posting on MySpace in order to "protect" them. In addition to the fact that such threats extend beyond the appropriate realm of pedagogues, I found the responses from 20 somethings rather interesting. At least the 20 somethings I read seemed unaware of the political history of young people's battles for free speech while simultaneously seeming old and cynical in relationship to the concerns of teens. It must be tough being over the hill while still in college, but that's how fast things move today.

Although the issue of young folks' attitudes about downloading copyright material is also raised in this report, I find the response so far to be rather uninteresting. Blah blah blah about what the music industry is going to do in the face of downloaders when the fact that what we are seeing is the postmodern artistic practice of appropriation becoming a mundane part of everyday life. That's some heavy sh*t and academic theorists had little to do with bringing it about.

Both the report and the questionnaire can be freely downloaded as .pdf files providing open access to research, one of the many reasons the Pew/Internet projects get widely discussed in the media, far beyond the usual brief flare from inaccessible research shared with the public only via press releases.